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Title 



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1844- 



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THE BEE MANAGER 



WITH DIRECTIONS POR 



MAKING AND MANAGING 



m 



RMONT AND PERFECT BEE HIVES. 

By c. G.*'car*-ra>C.>'*-^<^*U 

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SECOND EDITION. 



GENEVA: 

IRA MERRELL, PRINTER. 



TO THE READER. 

In justice to Mr. Weeks^ the patentee of the Hives de- 
scribed in this Httle work, I will here notify the reader that 
I am indebted to his Manual on Bees, for much of the sub- 
stance of the remarks here presented in a condensed form, 
mingled with my own observations, and designed as an 
accompaniment for those who use the Hives. 

The work is entirely practical, as it was judged that its 
end would thus be belter promoted than by science and 
argument. 



Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1844, by C. G. 
Cakpknter, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the 
Northern District of New-York. 



f 



i 4 



^/ff^M BEE MANAGER: 



" Y 

WITH DIRSCTIONS FOR 



u 

ITIAKSNG ANI> MANAGING 



THE 



VERMONT AND PERFECT BEE HIVES. 

BY C. G. C. 



Among the useful animals which a gracious Providence 
has allotted to our use, the Bee has a claim to high consid- 
eration. He stores up, for his owner's use, a nutritious, pa- 
latable and salable article of food, without expense offences, 
or pasturage, and with far le^ care than most domestic an- 
imals. True, they need some care; and this should be 
timely and judiciously bestowed ; but females, boys, or in- 
firm persons, can, with a few instructions and a little expe- 
rience and observation, give them every attention, and me- 
chanics, professional men, and gentlemen of leisure are be- 
coming highly interested in keeping them, and feel amply 
compensated, and are greatly delighted to pass away an 
hour of leisure in observing their industrious and skillful 
operations. Perhaps no animal is so profitable, yielding at 
so little expense so great an income according to the invest- 
ment. From close examination and accurate estimation, 
the writer believes that from one hundred and fifty to two 
hundred per cent, may be confidently expected as an ave- 
rage profit above all ordinary losses and expenses, and four 
hundred per cent, is not infrequently realized. But, 
" There are no gains without some pains." 
A 



ON THE BEES. 

There are three different sorts of Bees in each 
hive, viz : The Queen, or only female ; drones or 
males, and neuters, or common working bees. 
These last are, by some, called non-breeding fe- 
males. There is but one Q.ueen in the hiv^e, whe- 
ther the hive be larger or smaller. She is some 
larger and much longer than the common worker, 
and easily distinguished (he moment she is seen : 
she has a sting, but rarely or never uses it, unless 
in conflict with another queen. 

The drones are numerous until about August, 
when all, excepting, perhaps, a very few, are kill- 
ed or driven from the hive. They are large and 
cUimsy in their form, and without a sting. 

When a hive is destitute of a queen, the bees 
provide one if they have brood comb in which 
the young are not too far advanced. The queen 
leaves the hive with the first swarm, when the re- 
maining bees supply themselves with another, and 
generally with more than one, as may be known 
by listening at a hive eight or ten days after first 
sv/arming, or two days after the second swarming, 
when the angry notes of different queens may be 
very distinctly heard, when the hum of the bees 
is not too great. 

ON THE HIYE. 

The hive should be constructed with reference 
to hatching and rearing the greatest number of 
young bees, stor?jig food, swarming, dividing, 
doubling, feeding, warmth, a just supply of air, 
protection against the miller and worm, defense 
against robbers, and obtaining with the greatest 
facility the greatest amount of pure surplus honey. 



No hive, known to the writer, has stood the test 
of experiment so well, or given so good satisfaction 
to those who have used them, as the Vermont Hive 
and the Perfect Bee Hive, patented by John M. 
Weeks, of Vermont, the former June 30, 1S36, the 
latter July 1, 1841. 

This hive contains lower or central, upper and 
collateral or side apartments. The lower or cen- 
tral, is for the ordinary use of the bees ; the upper 
and the collateral are for obtaining surplus honey, 
multiplying swarms by dividing, doubling, i. e., 
putting t\vo or more swarms into one hive, feed- 
ing, transferring to another hive, and raising and 
supplying extra queens. 

The size of the hive is a prime object of consid- 
eration. If too large, the bees will not swarm ear- 
ly, and honey and '"bread will accumulate beyond 
the wants of the bees, and sour. If enlarged to a 
room they will not swarm at all ; and as a swarm 
of bees, be it ever so large, retains but one queen, 
she cannot, however prolific, long supply young 
enough to meet the constant diminution of the co- 
lony.'' Experience has taught that there should 
be one queen to about five pounds of bees, and the 
most economical size for the lower apartment of a 
hive is that of about a bushel in capacity, or hav- 
ing its three internal dimensions about equal to 
thirteen inches each. 

The chamber should be internally fourteen 
inches from front to rear, tv/elve and a half from 
side to side, and six and a quarter high. As^the 
four sides of the hive should be one and a half 
inches thick, the hive will be externally fifteen 
and a lialf inches wide across the front and sixteen 
and a half deep across the sides. The height will 
A2 



be regulated by the form of the bottom and back. 
If the bottom is level and the back perpendicular, 
the height will be twenty inches, but if the back 
is inclined three inches towards the front, so as to 
lessen the hive at the bottom, and the bottom in- 
clined so as to make the front the highest, the 
heiglit of the front may be twenty-three inches, 
and from the lower termination of the back twenty 
inches perpendicularly ; in this case the sides will 
have five angles. 

The back extends no higher than the lower 
apartment of the hive. 

The chamber floor is the partition between the 
upper and lower apartments. It is thirteen and a 
half inches long, to reach from side to side of the 
chamber and to enter a groove in each side of half 
an inch in depth and fifteen and a half inches wide, 
to enter a like groove in the front, and to allow a 
rabbet of one inch on the upper side of the back 
edge for a jamb to the door of the chamber. Sim- 
ilar jambs are made on the inner edges of the sides 
above the floor. The groove for the chamber floor 
may be three quarters of an inch wide. The up- 
per surface of the floor must be level. It has eight 
one and a quarter holes for a passage for the bees 
from the lower apartment. Four of these holes 
are in a line three and a half inches from the front, 
and the remaining four in a line ten and a half 
inches from the front. The four holes in these 
lines, next to the sides of the hive, are two inches 
from the sides, and the other four are four inches 
from the sides. 

The top board covers the hive, projecting half 
an inch on all sides, and has a groove or rabbet 
for the door. 



The door is thirteen and a half inches long and 
about seven inches wide, and fitted to the rabbets 
in the sides, chamber floor and top, and may be 
hung with hinges and fastened with a lock or 
bolt ; or it may be slipped up into a groove in the 
top board and locked or bolted at the lower edge. 

The bottom board must of course be adapted to 
the shape of the bottom of the hive. If this is an 
inclined plane, it should be even with the bottom 
of the hive all around, excepting projecting two 
inches in front. It should be suspended by four 
hooks two inches long, fastened to it by staples, 
and hooked, point down, into four staples in the 
sides of the hive near the four corners, half an inch 
from the bottom. It should be cut so short as to 
admit cleats nailed to the ends, to prevent warping. 
A channel three inches wide and three-eighths 
deep should be cut from near the centre to the 
front edge, to admit the bees ; or, instead of this 
channel, five or seven holes three-eighths of an 
inch, not larger, may be bored in the front, in a 
line two or three inches from the bottom ; or the 
front and back of a hive may have a square angle 
in the middle of the lower end and projecting be- 
low the sides, in which case the bottom will be 
composed of two boards nailed together like two 
sides of a box, forming two inclined planes and 
meeting in a line drawn (Vom the middle of the 
back to the middle of the front at their lower ex- 
tremities. Holes should be bored and the bottom 
suspended by hooks as above. 

If the bottom of the hive is square, the bottom 
board may lie upon a bench, and be one and a 
half or two inches thick ; and a channel cut, as 
above meniionedj one inch deep and three inches 



wide, and covered with aboard five-eightbs thick, 
making the channel three-eighths deep, and pro- 
jecting within the hive four inches, and without 
the hive two inches; or this culvert, or covered 
passage, may be made by mortising. But the hive 
suspended and the bottom board movable is pre- 
ferable, except when the best attention is given to 
the construction and management of the hive. In 
this case a button fastened to the back of the hive, 
in the middle near the lower edge, cut with a 
bevel, shuts the bottom close to the hive ; or, by 
turning, admits it to fall less or more, at pleasure. 

Two cleats one inch square and twenty-one in- 
ches long, and nailed on the sides of the hive 
against the chamber floor, projecting forwards and 
backwards alike, enables the hive to be suspended. 

Two sticks of siding, about three inches wide 
in the middle and pointed at the ends, may be 
sprung in to the hive from corner to corner, at 
half the height of the hive, crossing each other 
to sustain the bees and comb. 

The Collateral Boxes are equal in height to the 
lower apartment of the hive, and of the same depth 
from front to rear, and six and a quarter inches 
wide in the clear. Holes corresponding to those 
in the chamber floor, in number, size and position, 
are made in the side of the collateral boxes, which 
are next to the central hive, and also in the central 
hive, to afl'ord a passage from the hive to the box. 
The back of the cqllaterals is occupied by the door 
which should be well fitted into jams. One of 
these collaterals is used for multiplying, and called 
a collateral box: the other as a chamber to place 
drawers in for surplus honey, and is called a 
collateral chamber : or both may be used as cham- 



bers. The design of the collaterals is, to change 
the hive from a swarmer to a multiplier and non- 
swarmer. The collateral box should have a pane 
of glass fixed within the door, to prevent the comb 
being attached to the door, and to allow an ex- 
amination of the state of the bees, to know when 
to divide them : it may also have a mouth like a 
hive. The collaterals may rest on a bottom board 
like the hive, on a square bottom; or if the hive 
is suspended, a cleat nailed on each side of the 
hive, near the bottom, will support them ; they 
being kept close to the hive by hooks and staples 
at the top. 

Ventilators are an apparatus for regulating the 
heat and supplying air. A ventilator consists of a 
hole in which is inserted a tin or zinc tube two and 
a half inches in diameter and two inches long. 
One inch enters the board of the hive and is fas- 
tened ; the other inch projects outwards. In the 
projecting part are five half-inch holes, e:[uidistant 
in the circumference, and covered on the inside 
with a wire screen : a cap is fitted to this tube, 
having holes in the rim to correspond with those 
in the tube : by turning this cap, more or less air 
is allowed to pass. Every hive and every collate- 
ral, (except those hives which have movable bot- 
tom boards will not need one at the bottom,) 
should have two ventilators ; one in or near the 
bottom, and the other in or near the top. When 
both are in the sides of the hive, they should be 
in opposite sides. These apertures in the sides of 
the hives may also be covered with a wire screen. 

A thermometrical chamber is a place in or near 
the top of the hive for inserting a common ther- 
mometer, to aid in regulating the heat of the hives. 



It is made by cutting a hole quite through the 
hive large enough to receive the thermometer : the 
inner side of the aperture is covered with a wire 
screen, and the outer one with a slide. Inclose the 
thermometer, and the degree of heat is ascertained. 

The hive should be made of sound, well-season- 
ed pine, rabetted or matched at the corners, made 
with tight joints, well nailed, planed and painted 
white outside ,* planed on the inside and rubbed 
with cold beeswax, and the lower side of the 
chamber floor made rough by scratching. Some 
prefer making the body of the hive by itself, and 
the chamber in the form of a cap to be lifted per- 
pendicularly. Every hive, every frame and every 
drawer, should be made from the same patternj 
and should have its weight marked on it. 

The form or size of the hive, or of any part of 
it, may be altered to suit the owner, retaining the 
principles of the patents. 

Drawer's are made of thin siding, or siding and 
glass, and named from the number that will fill a 
chamber. No. 1 will fill a chamber, and has eight 
holes corresponding to those in the chamber floor. 
No. 2 is six inches square and fourteen inches 
long, on the outside. No. 4 is six inches square 
and seven inches long. No. 8 is seven inches long, 
six high and three wide. No. 16 is seven inches 
long, three high and three wide. Nos. 8 and 16 
are more curious than profitable. If glass ends are 
not used, cut a hole three inches in diameter, with 
a kind of bit in one or (better) both ends, and co» 
ver with glass on the inside. 

A single Frame for a non-swarmer and multi- 
plier, standing on a square bottom, may be thirty- 
two inches long, eighteen wide and twelve high. 



For a hive without the collaterals and with an in- 
clined bottom, the four posts may be three feet 
high, two by two inches, fastened in a square by 
four strips at top and bottom, three inches wide 
and twenty-one and a half inches long, let into 
gains and well nailed, with stops nailed on the 
inside of the posts, twenty-four and a half inches 
high, for the cleats of the hive to rest on. 

Four Slides of sheet-iron, sixteen inches long, 
two of them twelve and two six inches wide, are 
necessary for drawing honey and dividing swarms. 

The Hiver consists of three un planed boards, 
nailed together like three sides of a box. six or 
seven inches wide and sixteen or eighteen inches 
long. An iron, with a socket or shank for fasten- 
ing a handle, is forked so as to pass up two sides 
of this box, in the middle, from the open side, 
and nailed. When the bees choose their alight- 
ing place, hold the hiver by the handle, (which 
should admit of being lengthened or shortened,) 
near the spot ; and when the bees begin to enter 
it, (the open side being down and twenty or thirty 
half-inch holes bored in the top to admit them,) 
remove it a little distance, and the bees will soon 
collect in it : if any are reluctant to leave the 
limb, shake or brush them into the air. 

HIVING BEES. 

Have hives always ready. Let them be clean, 
sweet and cool, and communication with the 
chamber closed. Rub the hive with nothing but 
cold beeswax. When the swarm comes out, suf- 
fer them to alight quietly, making no noise of any 
kind : then, as soon as practicable, place your hive 
conveniently, either in its frame or otherwise, 



10 

and cut off the limb containing the bees, or brush 
them with a wing into a small basket or other ves- 
sel, throwing a cloth over them, (or use the hi- 
ver,) and carry to the hive : gently shake or empty 
them down near the hive or under it, having first 
placed a board, cloth or something else, to facili- 
tate their access to the hive. When most of them 
are in the hive, close up the bottom board till the 
third or fourth day, and put the hive in its place 
immediately. If the hive is nearly full of bees, 
give them access to the drawers without delay ; 
otherwise in eight days, or six if the weather has 
been fine. Should it so happen that considerable 
time has elapsed between the swarming and hiving, 
they should be removed after hiving, some dis- 
tance, so that if a delegation has been sent to find 
a home in the woods, they shall not find the swarm 
on their return. 

QUANTITY OF BEES. 

In estimating a hive of bees, regard the number 
of bees more than the weight of honey. A full 
complement of bees should be had in every hive, 
both old and young. This is requisite to their 
necessary warmth and to preventing robbery, and 
is the best defense against the miller or worm, 
and is the most economical, as fewer hives are 
used, and as bees enough to fill a hive of the com- 
mon size will deposit more surplus honey in one 
hive than they would if put in two hives, and 
will consume less. " If the swarm, when first hived, 
does not weigh four or five pounds, hive a small 
swarm in a drawer, No. 2, as soon as convenient, 
and at evening place the drawer in the chamber 
of the hive, and the bees will commingle without 



11 

difficulty ; but if any fighting or death occuTj 
blow a little smoke of tobacco or puff-ball into 
the hive. Should this not make the requisite 
quantity, another swarm maybe added in the same 
way, and another, and still another. Examination 
should be made into the state of the old hive, to 
see if its numbers are too much diminished by 
swarming. If so, the swarm should be made to 
return bj* shaking it on a cloth or table, and taking 
away all the queens, which in some swarms are 
five or six: after this, they return immediately. 
Third and fourth swarms should always be return- 
ed in this manner, if the old swarm is to be saved, 
and in many cases the second. When second 
swarms are not retmned, they should be doubled. 
Feeble swarms may be doubled in the beginning 
of winter. 

FOOD. 

A good swarm will provide sufficient food — • 
honey for themselves and bread for the young. 
If they have less than thirty pounds besides the 
weight of the hive, at the middle of October, they 
should be fed by putting honey, not candied, or a 
syrup of sugar or molasses, on a scooped board 
or other vessel, in the chamber of the hive, in such 
manner that they can carry it below and store it 
for use. If they need feeding in winter, they 
should be placed where the chamber will be 
warm enough for the bees to enter at all times. 
As feeding may induce robbery, due care should 
be taken to keep the entrance well closed, or to 
feed when the bees do not fly. They should weigh 
twenty-five pounds, besides the hive, on the first 
of December. When the latter part of winter and 



12 

the former part of spring have been mild, the quan- 
tity of bees will be much increased by April, and 
the quantity of food much diminished, in which 
case, should there be much cold or wet weather 
in April, or May, or even in June, some of the 
swarms may require feeding. Winter feeding 
should be avoided by liberal fall feeding. 

AIR. 

In a moderate temperature, a little air suffices ; 
but in either extreme, more should be admitted, 
by dropping the bottom board or otherwise, and 
opening the ventilator near the top. This, in hot 
weather, reduces the excessive heat, and in cold 
weather, carries off the breath and vapor of the 
bees and prevents the forming of white frost in the 
hive, which would chill the bees and prevent their 
moving to their food. As too much air in the 
spring and cold turns would delay and endanger 
the hatching of the young brood, and as too little 
in hot weather would prevent their working, and 
in cold weather would endanger their lives, a pro- 
per ventilation is an important part of bee man- 
agement. This is best accomplished by the aid 
of a thermometer. (See construction of a hive, p. 
7.) Bees very often die by snow accumulating 
around the hives and shutting out the air. When 
bees are found chilled, let them be removed to a 
warm room and thawed. 

WARMTH. 

A good swarm, in a good hive, with sufficient 
food and sufficiently ventilated, will generally pass 
the winter in safety, in the open air ; but it is bet- 
ter to have a house to secure them from the seve- 



13 

rity of storms and wind, and from the sun. They 
may be placed in a chamber, or out-building, or 
dry cellar ; but in such case they should, by dark- 
ness or otherwise, be prevented from leaving the 
hive. The feeble swarms should be placed in a 
mild temperature ; or, what perhaps is better, uni- 
ted to other swarms. 

WORM OR MILLER. 

No depredation will often be committed in a 
well made Vermont or Perfect hive, if kept v/ell 
filled with bees ; but if the anxiety of the owner 
to increase his swarms prevents his doubling and 
returning swarms, as directed in page 11, he Avill 
much expose himself to suffer loss, it is well to 
examine daily, or two or three times in a week, in 
and about the hive during the entire season of the 
flying of the bees, and remove any spiders, worms 
or millers that may be found. 

ROBBERS. 

When robbery is commenced, which may be 
known by some bees being killed, and an unusual 
quantity of the caps of the honey-cells fallen on 
the bottom, sprinkle the bees about the hive boun- 
tifLilly with cold water, and close the hive in the 
day time, but not so as to exclude the air. Re- 
moving them should not alone be depended on, 
except it be to some distance, 

LOSS OF THE UUEEN. 

Bees frequently lose their queen. The atten- 
tive observer will soon perceive this accident, by 
a cessation of their ordinary labors, and the ap- 
pearance of confusion about the hive. They aiQ 



14 

often lost in swarming; in which case the swarm 
always returns. In this case, she may often be 
found, as a few bees are always with her, and 
should be carefully taken in the hand and return- 
ed to the hive. If she is not found, another should 
be immediately supplied ; as, also, every swarm 
should be that is found destitute. During the 
swarming season, supplies are always on hand, as 
second, third and fourth swarms have a plurality, 
of which one may be taken and introduced at the 
mouth of the hive ; or any drawer may be taken, 
containing bees and brood comb, and the bees 
shut in for three or four days, giving them clean 
water daily. This may be kept till wanted, and 
then placed in the chamber of the hive destitute 
of a queen; or, if known to be destitute, the box 
containing the brood comb may be inserted at 
once. Bees, when destitute of a queen, will ac- 
cept any queen, or brood comb instead of one; 
but a living queen is best, especially in the swarm- 
ing season, when time is precious, as it takes one 
or two weeks for a queen to mature from the brood 
comb. 

MULTIPLYING SWARMS without SWARMING. 

For this purpose, insert drawer No. 1 in the 
chamber, and when it shall contain bees and brood 
comb, remove the drawer to the chamber of an 
empty hive : or if the collateral box is used, let it 
be removed, when filled, to the side of an empty 
hive, and put an empty collateral box in its place. 

In either case, both parts of the swarm should 
be shut in for three or four days, giving pure wa- 
ter daily. Dividing should be effected just before 
they would naturally swarm. 



15 

TRANSFERRING BEES FROM ONE HIVE TO ANOTHER. 

This should be done when the comb in a hire 
is old. Let them have drawer No. 1, well filled 
by themselves or another swarm, as early as Au- 
gust ; and if they need a new hive, they will 
leave the hive below and take possession of the 
drawer. Here let them remain until thoy can 
carry in plenty of bread, in the spring, as the 
drawer contains but little : then remove the draw- 
er to the chamber of an empty hive, which should 
be placed where the old one stood, the latter be- 
ing overturned ; or this may be effected with a 
collateral box with equal facility. 

REMOVING HONEY. 

Insert both the slides under the drawer, and 
then withdraw the upper slide and drawer together. 
Put in an empty drawer and remove the other 
slide. Put the drawer containing the honey a 
little distance off, and the bees will soon leave. 
If the drawer is left, the bees will soon commence 
carrying the honey to the hive ; therefore, the 
drawer may be placed in the dark, as in a room, 
under a box, or barrel with one head, leaving a 
hole for the bees to escape to the hive : the honey 
being in the dark, they will not return to it. 

REMARKS. 

The design of the culvert bottom board is to 
assist the bees in guarding the entrance against 
robbers and depredators. By opening so far within 
the hive the sentinels can have the heat of the 
hive to enable them to remain on duty during the 
chilliness of the night. 



16 

The cap of the ventilating tube in the bottom 
board will receive the bits of comb and other 
matter thrown down by the working of the bees, 
and should the miller get into a hive through the 
culvert passage, she will first meet this place of 
deposite for her eggs, and finding it to contain the 
exact substance of her choice, will leave them 
there. The cap may be emptied every two or 
three days. 

Though the Yermont or Perfect Bee Hive is 
more expensive than the common box hive, yet 
as the small swarms are either returned, or two, 
three and even four or more are put into one 
hive, not much more than one-third the number 
of hives is used. 

A small swarm may be returned by hiving in a 
drawer and placing it in the chamber of the hive 
whence it issued ; but then the queen is saved 
alive and will probably bring out the swarm again. 

When obliged to move bees a short distance 
during their working season, on the morning after 
moving, about the time they begin to fly, puff 
them with a little tobacco smoke. 

When honey is strained, the comb, before being 
made into wax, may be soaked in water to extract 
the remaining honey, and the liquid boiled down 
to a syrup for feeding bees. 

Stone jars are better vessels than earthen for 
storing honey. 

When the hive is designed to stand on the bot- 
tom, a little lime paste may be first put upon the 
bottom board where the bottom of the hive touch- 
es it. 



ADVICE. 

Insert drawers when the fruit trees are fully in 
blossom. 

Withdraw them in the fall and close the access 
to the chamber. 

When they are not in use, whether full or 
empty, paste some thin paper over the holes. 

Stick on a httle piece of white comb in the 
drawer, where you wish the bees to commence. 

Rub the drawer with cold beeswax, on the in- 
side. 

Nail on the bottom with large tacks, that will 
draw easily when the drawer is to be opened. 

Before opening, pass a fine wire or strong thread 
across, between the board and comb, from end to 
end, to separate the comb from the board. 

The sun should never shine on a hive, in warm 
weather, especially at the time or soon after hiving. 

Secure your bees from all intrusion. 

Sprinkle fine salt on the bottom board, occa- 
sionally. 

A looking-glass will throw the light of the sun 
into a drawer ; or, placed under the hive, will 
show the state of the bees. 

As want of room is the cause of first swarming ; 
so it may be the cause of their leaving after they 
are hived. 

As two or more large swarms may alight to- 
gether, some of your hives, at least, should have 
collaterals. 



IV. 

Use drawers in both collaterals, if your swarm 
is large, and you do not wish to divide them nor 
have them swarm. 

Bees should not he moved even three feet, du- 
ring the working season. When moved to a dis- 
tance, turn them on the top : shut them in so as 
to admit air. 

To unite two swarms at the beginning of win- 
ter, blow a little smoke of tobacco into both hives : 
turn over the one that is to leave, and place the 
other over it. 

To stop bees in flight, throw dirt among the 
leaders. 

It is convenient to have one pane of glass or 
more in the hive. 

If the ventilating tubes are not used, the aper- 
ture may be one and one-fourth inches. 

The ventilating process is very important. 



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